footnote: The redshirt is a stock character whose purpose is to die soon after being introduced as a warning of the danger posed to more important characters.

What an American is guaranteed: a wide smile ease bright children sunlight will shine and shine plants will grow and grow your name will go on and on

Insert crying baby with food smeared all over its face.

Begin historical plot: the sound of wind

Enter Krakow family, stage left, the new world is fresh – some people have meat and cheese.

We, that is my forbearers, have left some people behind. We, that is my father’s side of the family, don’t talk about who was left. I, that is the latest generation, don’t know.

(Insert image of fallen palm trees.)

The story is not yet sad. However, if you don’t know who you don’t wonder about, entertain the possibility that there is loss.

My grandfather was infinitely hopeful. He continued to exercise even when he had to carry an oxygen tank to breathe.

My father is also infinitely hopeful. He bought caviar again and again to celebrate the end of each successive round of chemotherapy his wife, my mother, completed on the way to her death. (Note: she is not the star of this story – she is the redshirt).

I too am infinitely hopeful. I keep the jewelry I inherited in a safe deposit box.

(Insert image of keys.)

Lost and found: In Yiddish they told jokes to hide from the Germans, and as it turns out also from their grandchildren, who as “luck” would have it also don’t speak Hebrew, but do have a working knowledge of Spanish.

(Insert politically incorrect joke about language, the economy and help.)

Vacations are an opportunity to show that you’ve made it. In order to show you’ve made it, you must continue working during vacation.

As a young man my father married a real American girl, moved across the country, and bought a house by a palm tree.